1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a printing system which charges to print a document, and a method of charging to print therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a printing system receives a printing signal from a plurality of host apparatuses which are connected thereto on a network and prints a document. Here, charging to the document printing is typically made to a user who gives a printing command, or may be made to other people, such as a document maker.
Japanese Patent First Publication No. 2006-227703 discloses a method of charging for printing to a document maker. The document maker stores a document to be printed in a printer server, and then, a user accesses to the printer server to retrieve the concerned document and give a printing command. Here, charging for the printing is made to the document maker after identifying a registration number of the document stored in the printer server.
However, according to this conventional method, a document to be printed should be stored in a printer server to determine who is to be charged for printing, and thus, larger storing part is needed for more documents, thereby increasing expenses for the storing part.
Further, in the conventional method, a user should retrieve a document to be printed which is stored in a printer server, which causes an inconvenience to the user and requires time for retrieving the document. According to circumstances, it may be difficult for a user to retrieve a desired document.
Furthermore, the conventional method, which requires networking for document retrieving and printing command transmission, cannot be applied to the case that a user does not use a personal computer, for example, the case that a user uses a USB memory for printing.